The present invention relates to a retention mechanism of an electrical connector, and particularly to a retention mechanism for steadily securing an electrical connector to a circuit board without scraping solder applied on the circuit board.
A conventional retention mechanism of an electrical connector commonly comprises a plurality of boardlocks integrally extending from the connector for being soldered to a mating circuit board. Common techniques adopted to solder conventional boardlocks of an electrical connector to a mating circuit board include both wave soldering technology and surface mount technology (SMT). SMT can quicken the manufacturing process, increase production, provide stable signal transmission quality and lower costs. When SMT is applied, solder is applied to a surface of a circuit board and electrical elements are then deposited on the circuit board.
Conventional boardlocks of an electrical connector are commonly inserted into corresponding through holes of a mating circuit board. Usually, solder is applied to inner surfaces of the through hole. Therefore, latching or projection means formed on the boardlocks will scrape the solder off the inner surfaces of the through holes thereby weakening the quality of the solder connection.
A pertinent prior art is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,907,987. Referring to FIGS. 6A and 6B, a conventional boardlock 42' of an electrical connector forms a pair of legs 46' forming arcuate projections 48' on opposite lateral edges thereof corresponding to a positioning hole 51' of a mating circuit board 5'. An inner surface of the positioning hole 51' is coated with solder 55'. However, when the boardlock 42' is inserted into the positioning hole 51', the arcuate projections 48' scrape the solder 55' off the inner surface of the positioning hole 51'. Thus, the electrical connector can not be securely soldered to the mating circuit board 5' and additional manual welding procedures are required to achieve satisfactory soldering quality thereby increasing costs.